John M. Murrin is a specialist in American colonial and revolutionary history, and the early republic. He has edited one multi-volume series and five books, including two co-edited collections, COLONIAL AMERICA: ESSAYS IN POLITICS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, Fifth Edition (2001) and SAINTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES: ESSAYS IN EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY (1984). His own essays on early American history range from ethnic tensions, the early history of trial by jury, the rise of the legal profession, and the political culture of the colonies and the new nation, to the rise of professional baseball and college football in the 19th century. Professor Murrin served as president of the Society for Historians of… the Early American Republic in 1998-1999. He is the author of Chapters 1-6.